Tag
by Meinos Kaen
Summary: There's the saying that two similar souls call out to each other. And that a hero never stops fighting. That is Naruto's case as he finds himself with the task of having to inherit a fellow hero's place and his legacy. DC Comics/Teen Titans Crossover
1. Prologue, T stands for

Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto universe nor the DC universe. Peace.

Well, what can I say… After I published No Reading they suggested this a number of times but I always refused because I don't follow DC much… Then I read a DCxNaruto crossover that sucked hard. So, I told myself: 'Hell, I didn't know much about Marvel either'. Before I began studying to prepare the Crossover. So, meet No Reading's sister fic. A DC Crossover. Tag. Enjoy!

_Prologue_

"Ngh…"

It was something incredible how one never stopped learning in his life. About everything around them; about themselves. And in Naruto's case, about his body. Never in his life would he have thought that his body could feel so heavy. His arms in particular, they felt like they were made of lead.

"How… How can this be…?" His opponent was probably in a similar state. Long gone was the immortal that controlled the mighty Kyuubi. The first, and now the last of his clan. Uchiha Madara. Long gone was the man who could control time and space with his techniques, appearing basically invincible. Both he and his opponent were now reduced to one desperate struggle; punching each other till someone fell.

"…Eh… Tired?" Naruto pulled his arm back for a punch, adding more force behind the blow. The ensuing hit was strong enough to send Madara's face jerking to the right hard. A tooth and more blood came flying out of his mouth. The Uchiha was shocked, but retaliated immediately, gritting his teeth. He didn't possess much physical strength compared to his younger opponent, but he had experience. He knew where to hit to hurt him the most.

Naruto hacked and sputtered from a strong blow to the stomach. A hook to the mouth followed, shooting his head to the left and making him lose balance. The dizziness and the pain he was feeling made him temporarily lose track of the outside world, leaving him wide open for Madara. Despite his exhaustion, the Uchiha took full advantage of his opponent's lapse in guard and finished his combination with an uppercut to the chin with all the strength he managed to gather, which wasn't a lot at this point.

"Agh!" Naruto's world was a mixture of pain and dizziness, He distantly felt himself stumbling backwards and away from his opponent, finally falling on his back after half a dozen steps or so. Neither of the combatants took real notice of this, so weak were they from their prolonged battle.

The immortal stood nearby panting heavily, his head slowly shifting to look around. Such destruction, it had really been a harsh battle. Young Naruto had learned of a way to defeat him with the cost of many of his friends sacrificing themselves in trying to confront him before the boy; last being the only other living Uchiha beside him. A young prodigy that he had wanted to raise as his own, but his plan backfired when he and his team had turned on him. It didn't matter in the end, of course. The boy had fought well, but against him their pitiful efforts had been useless.

However, he had managed to leave a message. A message that young Naruto had found and managed to understand. Something that the quasi-immortal was still baffled by, considering how dense the boy acted most of the time. He left him the secret of the Sharingan. The Sharingan, the Mangekyou Sharingan… It wasn't a simple illusion, or ninjutsu. The Sharingan made the user able to manipulate space and time to a certain extent.

Tsukuyomi manipulated space and time, moving an enemy's consciousness inside an alternate dimension, over which just the one possessing the Sharingan had complete control of. Was it born with the Sharingan or had it always been there? He himself didn't know.

Amaterasu manipulated space. He opened a portal from the deepest recesses of the Tsukuyomi's dimension, its own little hell on earth, and from there unleashed the black flames that never stopped burning.

Susanoo… Uchiha Itachi really was unique. If it hadn't been for his illness, Madara believed he would have surpassed him too. Truly the strongest Uchiha ever. Susanoo was a time-space jutsu, a summoning jutsu. It allowed him to summon the god of the Tsukuyomi's dimension to do battle for him.

As for Madara… His eyes made him immortal. He had learned to extend his manipulation of the time and space of Tsukuyomi to his own body, which was so closely connected to the other dimension due to his strengthened eyes. In battle, he manipulated his own space, shifting parts of his body away to avoid damage. He lived so long because he had learned that even his own body could be subject to the Sharingan's rule in the Tsukuyomi's dimension. And as such, he always could keep it young.

The boy had learned… And had come prepared. At first, the boy had managed to hit him a few times thanks to his Frog Katas. Even he couldn't predict something invisible, such as nature chakra. It was invisible even to his eyes. But he had never been one for close range combat, after all. After he unleashed Tsukuyomi on the boy's feeble mind just as he threw his strongest technique, the Rasenshuriken, he thought to have the battle won… But little did he know that the jinchuuriki hadn't been aiming at him at all, from the beginning. The devastating technique's target had always been the statue where the other eight Bijuu had been trapped into.

The statue shattered to pieces and dust, releasing the enormous masses of sentient chakra. Not possessing a body, needing time to make one, the bijuu obeyed their basic instincts and lunged at the closest target: Madara. He had screamed as demonic chakra ravaged his body, burning him to his very core. But most importantly, it infected him and the area around his body with an evil, foreign chakra. It cut him off from the other dimension, from the Tsukuyomi, disturbing the delicate flow that existed between the two planes of existence. He couldn't use his full powers anymore, and god knew if he ever would be able to again.

From there, things had escalated. Without his invulnerability, Madara was just like any other Uchiha. Techniques upon techniques had been unleashed, destroying the landscape around the two combatants, till they ended up spent, hitting each other like tired brawlers after minutes of fighting… And that's exactly what had happened.

"Anf… Anf…" The last Uchiha looked around, observing the destruction and understanding its implications. Understanding that, for the first time in his life, someone had pushed him over the edge. Someone had de-structured him; hurt him more than he could have ever thought. Had made him weak and vulnerable. He slowly turned his gaze back to Naruto. "You're incredible… Boy…"

The blonde found himself on the ground, staring at the night sky, not quite sure how he ended up in the position. His memories of the last minutes of the battle were hazy. There had been an enormous cavern there when the fight had started, but all that was left of it now was a huge, scorched crater and some smoking rubble.

"..." Naruto just kept on staring at the sky, while Madara slowly limped next to him. He kneeled down and picked up a kunai from the ground, wincing in pain from his injuries and broken bones while doing so. It was damaged, broken, but it would be enough to cut his latest opponent's throat; proving him the strongest shinobi on the continent.

"You could have been… You would have the title of 'Strongest Ninja'… If I didn't exist…" Madara said slowly, taking ragged breaths of air between each little sentence, while he grasped the kunai with both hands. "But in the end… You met me… I'm the immortal, Uchiha Madara…" He slowly raised the broken weapon above his head, ready to strike, to deal the final blow… He felt the need to make his victory grand, something that he would always remember afterwards. His moment of triumph. He gathered all his remaining strength and arched his body to put more strength in his blow, taking in and relishing every little detail of moment. He took a deep breath and talked with a loud voice, almost yelling. "Everyone will end like you, before me!"

"Yeah… On their back, on the ground, perfectly still…" Naruto said while Madara struck down with the kunai, ignoring his soon to be dead opponent; only to reel back in sudden pain and shock. Naruto had shot from the ground lightning fast, head putting Madara in the chin with his forehead and taking the kunai in his left shoulder while his hands reached forward. "The perfect condition to gather some Sage Chakra."

"…" He didn't open his mouth till too much blood gathered there for him to keep it closed. Interesting how the bleeding came first. Blood flowed out of every pore of his body before the other effects of the wind chakra happened. A little tornado, a messed up 'Titanic Rasengan' that Naruto had conjured in his messed up condition, that first damaged everything inside Madara's body and then sent him flying up in the air. The blast of wind sent Naruto stumbling backwards on the ground, hurting his body more in the process.

He stopped after tumbling for a few meters, his whole body hurting, his breath rasped and his eyelids threatening to close. But he wouldn't let them close. Not before everything was over. Not before… Before Madara fell to the ground, lifeless, his face distorted in a mask of terror and pain, no sound or movement coming from him. He observed the lifeless body for a bit longer, waiting for any signs of a reaction… A reaction came. His neck gave in, bending and lengthening in an unnatural way. There was no way he was still alive after that. He let his head fall to the ground.

"Ero-sennin…" Naruto said, feeling his eyelids closing slowly, batting them a few times in an attempt to stay awake. "I couldn't… find a way to make… everyone get along, but…" He laughed a bit sadly. He was too injured, maybe even for the Furball, to survive this. "I… paved the way…" He said, his eyelids finally closing, while something happened in that closed space.

The massive energy of all the bijuu had warped and weakened the dimensional fabric around them enough to cause a little disaster. But with the disappearance of Madara, yet another thing happened. Missing the only link it had to the real world, the Tsukuyomi dimension reacted in an awful way, desperately trying to call back its lost link. A small spark of black lighting suddenly appeared, quickly becoming bigger and louder, till a crack formed in mid air. A strong wind surfacing as the crack began to pull in everything near it… Including Naruto.

--

Meanwhile, in another place… In another universe. In another 'multiverse'. Long ago the people living in that universe had discovered that there was a 'multiverse'. Many ultimate realities different or similar to each other, all sharing a 'base' in some manner. What they didn't know was that their multiverse wasn't the only one existing. And then it disappeared. Following an incident, a crisis, caused by a creature called the 'anti-monitor', the multiverse became a single universe, dubbed 'Earth-One'.

Now another crisis has come into place, something that has been building up for a long time before finally reaching the breaking point. A spirit of vengeance became crazed and started a foolish crusade against everything magic. Earth-One's mightiest villains joined together in a 'Society', carrying together a plan to mind-wipe all heroes existent. Gods of Myth tried to escape that universe before the crisis happened, uncaring about the lives and planets they destroyed. A galactic war erupted because of a crazed cult for a demonic god. A satellite that was supposed to help monitoring earth meta-humans got hijacked and perverted, before he broke free and became ruthless.

A huge, terrible situation was caused by the action of some of the survivors of those other universes which got erased in that old crisis. Alexander Luthor from Earth-Three and Superboy-Prime from Earth-Prime. They believed that the world that got saved wasn't the right one, seeing how it had degraded over the course of time. Once Kal-L's Lois Lane fell ill, they devised a plan. The distraction gave them the time and freedom to escape their 'prison' that Alexander himself had created, and to start working on a plan to build a machine to rewrite a universe.

The materials for the machine came from Anti-Monitor's body. Its 'keys' were a few specific individuals, which Alexander collected thanks to the Society that he created posing as that universe's own Lex Luthor. Its fuel was the world's magic, made astray and chaotic by the maddened Spectre. The one to re-map the universe and redirect the stray magic would be the satellite Brother I, now Brother Eye, made sentient by Alexander. They re-aligned the center of the universe itself, so it would coincide with the center of Earth-Two's universe. All this was done to find and create the 'perfect earth'.

But of course, heroes are known for putting up a fight. All over the universe, heroes fought back. In the end, their plan got stopped at the cost of many lives. The most prominent one being the one of Conner Kent, who gave up his life to destroy the very machine that was supposed to destroy their universe. But Alexander had a back up plan. If they couldn't find the perfect earth, they would just create one from the one already existent. That was what the Society was always meant to do.

The back up plan was a massive prison break of every villainous meta-human existent on the planet. After the prison break, they used the ex-prisoners for a massive attack on Metropolis; Superman's city. If it falls, then the others will follow suit. A group of ex-villains called The Six warned the heroes of the impending attack on Metropolis, preferring to stay out of the conflict itself. The provided information gave the heroes enough time to mobilize a defence against the attack, leading to their victory against the prison escapees. So, that plan failed as well.

The only risk left was the crazy Superboy-Prime, who had his own back-up plan. The plan was to cause another big bang by making the center of the universe, Oa, detonate, leaving him the only 'hero' alive in the universe. But the universe he wanted to destroy still hadn't given up the fight.

"Cold?" The barricade he had found in his way was maybe the entire Green Lanterns corp. "You don't know cold." He gritted his teeth before breathing out extremely cold air, freezing and shattering two Green Lanterns. Their rings flashed green and departed at high speed towards the deceased guardians' space sector, searching for their replacements. "Cold is being the only survivor of an earth that was erased from history."

He then turned his heated gaze in another direction, unleashing an inferno of heat on more Green Lanterns that were to be his victims that day with just a glance, giving them a fiery death. "Cold is being imprisoned because you tried to do the right thing." He gritted his teeth again, turning his attention to the rest of the group. "Cold is what this universe has made me… Nnng."

"Code fifty-four, lanterns!" A peculiar thing about the Green Lanterns… There should be just one for every space sector. But earth has more than three individuals possessing that kind of power. One of them was Guy Gardner. "Excessive force has been approved! And encouraged for this cry baby." Brash. Probably brave. But today, weak against his newest opponent, who ignored his green blast of energy although it hurt him and grabbed him by his throat.

"You're rude and offensive, Guy Gardner." The crazy Kryptonian said, while trying to break his neck with his hold. The only thing preventing it was the force field created by the ring. "I wonder who your ring is going to go to."

"His ring stays with him." Superboy-Prime cried out in pain as a green blast of energy cut through his armor and his arm, making him lose his grip on Gardner, courtesy of one of the other earthen Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan. The Kryptonian retaliated immediately by lunging at the Green Lantern.

"Don't pretend you're a good guy now. I saw what you did, Hal Jordan. You're one of the most awful." He punched him in the face with a strength that was enough to shift a planet's orbit. "You're a maniac!"

An intervention came in the form of two blurs of red and blue that impacted Superboy-Prime 'faster than a speeding bullet', making him travel through space with them. He recognized the two faces: Superman of Earth-One, Kal-El and Superman of Earth-Two, Kal-L. "Where do you think you're going? Where?!" They kept on pushing him, and he retaliated by punching them in the face. Neither of them let up. "You can't send me back into the speed force. You're not fast enough."

His first thoughts were of course of the way they had imprisoned him the first time. But it took the efforts of all the Flash from past and future to do so. Then, suddenly, his vision was filled with green rocks. A smirk came to his face. "Oh, I see where you've brought me now. To the place this Krypton exploded." He then laughed in their faces lowly. "But this Kryptonite isn't from my universe. It won't hurt me. All you're going to do is kill this Superman." He said, looking at Kal-El with an amused smirk, before laughing again. "I mean, did you think these rocks would stop me? Hahahahaha!" His laughter boomed again in the silent abyss of space. "Did you really?"

Nothing. No reply from his opponents, who just kept on pushing him forward. That finally struck him as strange. They were just pushing him, holding him in place while looking at him… No, not at him. Just forward… And he understood why, finally, when he felt an immense heat on his back, coming from behind him, feeling it on his skin even through his armor. He turned around… And found that their aim hadn't been the kryptonite field… But the red sun right behind it.

They dove straight through it, all three of them. The corona, the core, the nucleus burning their very skin and flesh during those few seconds of travel, before getting out of it. The two Superman's holds broke and the three of them fell through the atmosphere of a nearby planet, slamming into the ground and creating three small craters.

"…" The first to recover was Kal-El. He slowly crawled out of his own hole, and equally slowly got back on his feet, his whole body hurting. Such silence… It was really over? But at yet another price? First Conner, now… His eyes shifted to his Earth-Two's counterpart still form. "Superman…"

"DIE!" He screamed in pain when heat-vision suddenly started to burn through his skin, hitting him in the back. He fell to his knees still screaming as Superboy-Prime let him know that he was still alive and kicking. "DIE AND LEAVE THIS UNIVERSE TO ME!" He said keeping on focusing his heat vision on him, wanting him to burn alive. Before his heat vision began to fail him. The power and range began to lessen little by little, like a car suddenly running out of fuel. His mouth opened, his face a mask of disbelief. "My heat vision?! What's happening?" He said, his hands going instinctively to his head, worry getting a hold of him as Kal-El got a break to recover.

"You're losing!" Kal-L gave him the latest news, including that he, too, was alive and kicking. He slammed his fist at full force in Superboy-Prime's face, sending him flying for a few meters. The crazy Kryptonian didn't react at first. He was too dazed, too confused and too hypnotized by the sight of his own blood flowing from his nose.

"My armor…" He finally began to understand. "That red sun destroyed my armor." He started to breathe heavily, the effects of the trip through the sun dawning on him. His glare settled on Kal-L, who unfortunately had two disadvantages. They were both Kryptonians, but he was older. And the red sun had started to take away his superpowers as well. "You." Superboy-Prime sprung forward, 'spearing' him, grabbing him by the waist and throwing him to the ground, rage and madness possessing him completely. "You took my superpowers?!"

Then, he began to unleash his fury. Pinning Kal-L to the ground, he began to hammer at him with both his fists without mercy and without letting up. "You said the earth was dark and corrupted! You saw it all happen! You saw our sacrifice become pointless!" He kept on pummeling his face, caving it in, blood flowing freely from the older Superman's head, drenching their clothes and Superboy-Prime's fists. "Lois died because of them! My earth died because of them! You have to understand why I'm doing this…"

"Understand, Superboy?" His right fist, reared back and ready to hit its target again, got stopped by the wrist by a hand. A hand belonging to the now recovered Kal-El. Earth-One's Superman pulled him away from his Earth-Two counterpart and threw him to the ground. "You're willing to destroy everything and everyone to feel what?" Rage was now evident in his voice too, filling his every word. "Special? Needed?!"

"I am special!" While on his face, Superboy-Prime took a hold of a big piece of Kryptonite lying on the ground. He turned around and smashed it against Kal-El's face, sure that it would be effective in debilitating him. "I'm the only one who can rescue this messed-up universe!" The blow was effective indeed. Now Kal-El ended on the ground as well, Superboy-Prime hands formed a vice around his neck, trying to rip his head off. "I'm the only one who knows how to make it right. I will be its greatest hero! When you're gone… I will be Superman!"

"…Superman?" Maybe it was his pretentious words. Maybe just willpower. Nevertheless, Kal-El seemed to be able to ignore the effect of the Kryptonite. His right hand shot forward to Superboy's chest, grasping hard on his symbol. He then pushed hard with his legs, ripping it off cleanly. "You'll never be Superman! Because you have no idea what it means to be Superman!"

"Yes, I do." Superboy-Prime landed on one knee, breathing heavily, blood marring his face. "I'm from Krypton! A better Krypton than yours ever was!"

"It's not about where you were born." Superman stood tall above his opponent, grasping tightly with his hand the symbol he had just stripped him of. "Or what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest."

"SHUT UP!" The younger Kryptonian reacted and sent a left straight at Superman's chin with the last of his strength, it seemed. But it was time to end it, because Kal-El felt his own strength starting to fade as well.

A left hook. A skyscraper would have crumbled. A right straight. A whole city's glasses would have shattered. A left straight. That city would have been hit by a small earthquake. Another right straight. The ground would have opened in a fissure. Last hit. A powerful, left upper-cut. The echo of the 'kraak' reached far, far away, miles in all directions. Superboy-Prime's body flew in the air a few feet above the ground before falling, completely spent.

"It's about what you do…" Superman said, his last strength spent, his breath heavy. The kryptonite starting to drain his very life force. He fell on his knees. "…It's about action." His arms couldn't hold him anymore and he fell on the ground, face first in the dirt, fragments of kryptonite all around him…

"There they are." Before countless flashes of green light started to obliterate or transmute them, ending the threat to his life. He didn't bother to look up, or maybe he just couldn't. He just kept his eyes closed while the whole Green Lantern corps and his other allies who could fly through space freely like him arrived on the planet.

"Let me down now, John." One of the in particular was eager to land, seeing the form of her adoptive father on the ground, far more bloody and injured than the other two. Kara, alias Power-Girl. From Earth-Two, like Kal-L. The Green Lantern complied with her wishes while the other created a holding cell for the now unconscious Superboy-Prime. The menace finally over.

"Superman?" The Martian Manhunter went to Kal-El, helping him back on his feet.

"I'm okay, J'onn." He replied, even if he couldn't stand without leaning on the green Martian. But his concern was for someone else. "How's…"

"Kal!" Power-Girl had reached Kal-L, kneeling down beside him.

"Kara…" His breath and voice were rasped. His body battered and injured. His life ending. He was dying. And yet… The Superman from Earth-Two was smiling. "We stopped him… Superman stopped him."

"You're going to be fine. You have to be fine." Kara said, feeling tears starting to gather in her eyes.

"It's okay." Kal-L said, still smiling, assuring her that it was okay if he faded away.

"No. Don't leave me alone, Kal. Please, don't leave me alone again." She couldn't believe the injustice of it all. She had found someone understanding her and her memories after so long… And now the people that had given them those memories were all going away. She sniffed and put a hand to her face, holding it, trembling. "It can't end this way."

"Kara… I finally understand." The dying Kryptonian continued. "I know what Lois was trying to tell me." He raised his right hand, moving it to her left cheek. She held it close, tears now falling freely.

"What are you talking about?" She said, confusion joining sadness in her.

"I'll always be with you, Kara. Even if you can't see me, I'll always be here." His strength began to give away for good, his hand retracting. Kara didn't let go of it, grasping it softly with both of her hands. "It's never going to end. It's never going to end… for us…" His gaze then wandered to the sky above, now darkened, myriads of stars shining brightly above. And yet, his gaze fixed on a single one. The brightest of all of them. Shining stronger than any other. A single, final word came out of his mouth, realizing that she had been waiting for him. "Lois…" He said, his final breath being the fuel of those words. His hand finally fell limp along with the rest of his body. Kal-L died… Peace, freedom and love, all finally in his grasp, as the people left behind cried for him. A whole universe thankful. Thankful to a true hero. Thankful to Superman.

Two 'supes' had met their end, that day. One young, one older… But both heroes. And one of them still had not finished his job…

--

"…" He felt like he had not opened his eyes in ages. And it took him a bit of time to gain focus on his surroundings. Mostly because of the surroundings themselves. His vision was just filled with black, filled with many bright, shining small white dots. Then other colours began to come into play. Red waves, yellow streaks passing by. He got back in a sitting position, looking around. "…Where am I?"

He slowly got back on his feet, realizing that he didn't recognize his surroundings at all. It reminded him of the night sky. But it was deeper... Bigger. And it was like he was in the night sky. There was no ground under his feet, just more space. And why could he see his reflection too? "… What is it… Uh?"

He then noticed something else: Those streaks of light of various colours. They weren't just lights. He could see human shapes inside them. And while, at first they were far away, some were now passing right beside him. Two on his sides. One green and one azure. "H-Hey!" He shouted, since he had seen clear human shapes inside those streaks of light. He instinctively shouted at them since they had passed by him a bit too close for comfort. "Watch where you're going, idiot!"

Suddenly, one of those two streaks stopped dead in its tracks. It stopped running. The azure one. And then it turned around towards him. He could finally make out a clear shape as the figure inside the light faced him. It was a boy maybe older than him. Definitely taller and in better shape than him. He had short, black hair. His choice of clothing was strange. Some kind of long pants and a pair of shoes the likes of which he had never seen. And finally, the only thing he could make out a colour of because of how dark it was. A black, short-sleeved t-shirt with a symbol on its chest on probably dark red. The symbol was… A big S.

"…" The figure stared at him and Naruto just stared back. It was so normal, it felt so normal… He didn't know who had approached the other. All he knew was that the distance between them suddenly lessened, from about twenty meters to maybe less than one. He didn't know exactly. "…What is it?" The blonde asked, getting a bit annoyed.

The S-boy suddenly extended his right hand, opening it wide, with the palm facing up. Naruto blinked and just stared at the extended appendage. It wasn't the pose for a hand-shake. He stared at it for a while before the boy moved his hand up and down briefly. Naruto blinked again. "Me too?" The boy nodded. Naruto didn't understand but complied, extending his right hand, with the palm open towards the sky. The boy suddenly raised his own hand, turning it around, just to move it down towards Naruto's hand, slapping it loudly. Naruto got confused by the strange gesture, staring at his hand in confusion. He then raised it to stare at the boy, only to find that he was 'walking' away. "H-Hey?! What was that all about?!"

"Tag. You're it." Those were the only words he muttered before starting to fade in the distance again.

"Hey! Who are you?! What's your name?!" Naruto said, starting to run after him… But to no avail. It seemed like he could not advance no matter how many steps forward he took.

"Conner Kent. Superboy." He said while keeping on floating away into the distance. Suddenly Naruto's senses began to get engulfed by darkness once again. "…When you meet them… Tell them I'm sorry." Those were the last words he heard before passing out.

**Tag**

**ChapterI: ****T stands for…**

It's strange, being non human. Non human meaning, in this case, being a Cyborg. Half machine. You can survive many things, like surviving being fused together to another superhero in the after-wave of finally putting a universe back together. After the separation, though, comes the difficult part.

The human part needed healing. The machine part needed repairs. And after that, the memory and the equivalent of a computer CPU. The memory in particular needed time to adjust to the improved body but most of all, it needed time to defragment all the data with which it had been overloaded, along with all the data he kept on receiving. Even while offline; it seemed that his eyes kept on watching and recording. After one year…

"Hnnkk." Victor Stone, alias Cyborg, was back online. The first thing he noticed was how hard it was to stand. He fell to his knees, spitting out a bit of what flowed through his body in place of blood. It still was red, though. "G-Gar…?" He was still a bit confused. The last 'memory' he was the witness of was one of Beast Boy, Garfield Logan, saying goodbye to him, bag in hand. Suddenly, he heard voices coming from somewhere nearby.

He uneasily got back on his feet, using his hands to grip on the wall and hold himself up, crushing a part of the wall in the process. 'Don't know why Robin's wasting his time looking for her again.', 'Well, she was a titan. And she was one of his best friends or something, right?' 'You met her. She's a bitch'. Whispers. He had to thank his machine side to be able to hear the voices, if just barely. But the closer he got to the source, the clearer the voices became.

"That's five dollars for the swear jar!"

"'Bitch isn't a swear word."

"Blue devil says it is! Pay up, sinner!" One voice was completely new to him. A male one. The other one, a female… It sounded familiar. But he was still dizzy. Couldn't access his database… "Blue Devil says you gotta take the evils in this world and make something good out of 'em."

"Why are you pointing at me when you say that?" The female voice sounded a little annoyed by now.

"I wasn't… Hey! Put the sword down!" Yes. Just a little. He was at the corner. He just had to walk a few more steps. He shot his hands forward and grasped the wall hard, supporting himself with it. "Did you hear…?"

He pulled himself into the room the voices came from. His human eye and its cybernetic counterpart took in, as he had expected, one unfamiliar face and a familiar one. One was… A little devil. He didn't know how to describe him otherwise. Long white hair, two black horns coming from his forehead. Reddish brown skin, a tail with an arrow end, normal hands but… Talon like feet, and glowing red eyes and mouth. He was standing crouched on the table of what he supposed was a kitchen.

"Hot damn! Cyborg's awake!" Was the boy's comment upon seeing his figure.

"Your turn to feed the swear jar." The girl said, while polishing her sword with some kind of rectangular stone. She was the familiar face. Her uniform had changed a bit, but he could recognize her from other things. Very long, gray hair. An eyepatch covering a missing eye. The uniform hadn't changed that much, either.

"R-Ravager?!" He said, raising his right arm up, while morphing it into some kind of cannon. It felt slightly different. Someone had modified his body, it seemed.

"Looks like there's no brain damage. He remembers me…" The girl said, a bit sarcastic… Before it dawned on her. "…Uh, oh. He remembers me." She dove out of the way just in time to dodge the repulsive blast, which still had the effect of sending every item around flying in different directions. "Ow."

"Why's he attacking us?" The little devil jumped out of the way too, dodging kitchen tools in mid air. "What's wrong with him?"

"Considering the last time he saw me…" She jumped over him as he rushed at her, ending up destroying some furniture behind her. Good thing she was agile. "…I was trying to slit Raven's throat, I'd say nothing." She landed back on her feet easily. "A little help here, Eddie?"

"We're not bad guys! We're just having lunch!" The devil-like boy, named Eddie, jumped on the Cyborg's back, trying to restrain his movements while talking to him. "We live here… Hhhmph!" But either his reasoning still wasn't back online, or Victor just didn't believe him, since he elbowed him in the stomach. And an elbow-blow from Cyborg hurts. A lot… The after effect was that the red-eyed boy let out a torrent of flames from his mouth, setting fire to lots of things around him.

"You just set the kitchen on fire." The girl unsheathed her swords. He was half machine, right? Incapacitate those parts and it would be fine.

"I couldn't help it. He hit me in the gut." Eddie said while trying to grab onto Victor's back again.

"You're such a girl." She said, before trying to slash through his cannon-like arm… Just to fail miserably, just scratching it.

"Sweet! Ravager's swords can't cut through him!" Two new people seemed to have entered the room, observing the battle ensuing. "The promethium alloy and self-repairing nanotech shell is working well."

"My idea." Again, a boy and a girl. Suddenly, Victor's body flared with electricity, stunning and sending Eddie flying up in the air.

"Electrical discharge from his body for in-close grappling." The girl, Ravager, had crossed her swords together in an attempt of stopping Cyborg from caving her head in. She turned her gaze to the two idiots who had repaired said half-machine man and were now observing the fruits of their work, just as the girl said 'My idea too'.

"Will one of you geeks grab his remote control and turn it off?!" Ravager was finally losing her cool. She didn't like having a weapon in her face.

"Emergency shutdown?" The brown haired boy said, turning to the black haired girl beside him who met him just with confusion.

"I thought you put it in." She replied.

"I thought you did." He said, before they got pinned to the ground by a glowing blue net.

"Metal mesh net."

"Your idea." While they debated, Victor seemed to have finally got a hold on both his opponents. Lifting them by their necks, he slammed them back first into the wall in front of him.

"Who… Who are you?" Victor said, turning to the devil-like boy of the two, held by his throat by his left hand.

"We're the Teen Titans." He said, breath barely passing through his throat.

"No, you're not." Victor replied. He remembered clearly of not having seen any of them around in his team before.

"We're the New Teen Titans." Eddie replied again.

"I was a New Teen Titan." Victor said again. Lies, lies, lies.

"The New, New Teen Titans?" Eddie tried, his breath escaping him and his voice getting out similar to a whine.

"Vic!" A voice called to him. The voice was familiar, and the fact that they were using a shortened version of his name indicated a certain kinship. He turned around… And he was met with a familiar face indeed. The costume had changed a bit, mostly in the colours, but he was him. Tim Drake. The Boy Wonder. "Welcome back."

"Robin?" Victor said, still a bit stranged out by how calm he was with all the obvious nonsense around him.

"We all hoped you'd be awake soon." That sentence reminded him that, indeed, he had been on shut down for a long time. He let got of his two captives.

"What's going on?" He said.

"We kicked butt on you, that's what." Replied the black haired girl under the mesh net, while Robin helped her and the boy to get out of it.

"And now we need to remodel the kitchen." Joked the brown haired boy.

"These two are Marvin and Wendy. They're kind of the caretakers of the tower." Robin pulled on the net and got it off the two twins. "They spent the last six months rebuilding you."

"Dad sent us over to help after we graduated from M.I.T.… On our sixteenth birthday." Boasted Wendy. And yes, it was an impressive feat. Robin let them finish their introduction, Marvin saying 'I'm the oldest', Wendy replying 'By like five minutes', while focusing his attention back to Eddie.

"This is Eddie Bloomberg." He said. The red-skinned boy nodded.

"Kid Devil here." He said, his fingers in what he thought was a cool pose, it seemed. "I'm Blue Devil's sidekick."

"I thought Blue Devil was a sidekick." Victor said, a whisper loud enough for the boy to hear.

"And you already know Rose Wilson." Robin finished, turning his head towards the girl who was recovering her swords from the rubble.

"What the hell is Slade's daughter doing here?" Victor voiced out his opinion. Ravager just smiled maliciously.

"Oh, don't worry Cyborg. I'm not like Terra… I'm a good girl now."

--

"When you came back from space, you were pretty messed up." After settling down, Robin brought Cyborg out of the tower, on the side facing the sea. The enormous T-shaped building stood behind them as Tim guided Cyborg somewhere, through the now machine-tended garden, once a former titan's pride.

"Where's Kory?" Cyborg's thoughts immediately went to said person. An alien who had lost her planet and that was very protective and jealous of her garden.

"Not all of you came back." Robin simply replied. Cyborg tensed.

"Is she…"

"She's still out there… we hope." Robin cut him off, not letting him even voice that kind of thought, or hypothesis. Victor understood his line of thought and moved on.

"Where are the other Titans?" He asked, still remembering that their team didn't have a Kid Devil and the daughter of one of their worst enemies in its roster. And even more, what had happened to those who were?

"According to Green Arrow, Mia's off on some island with Connor Hawke." Mia Dearden. Speedy. The newest sidekick of Green Arrow. "Bart is…" Robin stopped talking, thinking about the best choice of words for explaining Bart's whereabouts. It wasn't that big of a deal, so he decided to keep it short. "He's kind of retired. Raven quit after she and Gar broke up."

"Where's Gar?" Beast Boy and Raven broke up. Raven quit… But what about Beast Boy? He was maybe his best friend…

"Gar's rejoined the Doom Patrol." Robin replied, earning a repetition of the team's name by Victor, out loud. Suddenly, they stopped walking. They had arrived at the place Tim wanted to show Victor. "And Conner…" Robin slowly raised his head, taking in once again the enormous statue they had made for his best friend. "He saved the universe. Superboy saved everybody."

"…" Victor took in the statue and those words, which immediately weighted heavily on his shoulders. On his very soul. They didn't make statues just for anyone. They needed a special reason for statues to be made. And Tim's words… They had been his gentle way of telling Victor that Conner was no longer among the living. "No…"

Victor leaned his hands on the unshaped rock base of the statue, his fingers making dents and cracks into it. A single tear found its way down from his human eye. His thoughts went almost immediately to the last missing member of the team he remembered. Conner's girlfriend. "Where's Wonder Girl?"

--

The west coast is beautiful in May. The weather is comfortably warm, and there's not much super-trouble, mostly because of the presence of a famous super-team on it.

"Stop her! Somebody!" But again, there are a lot of interesting spots for villains. Like the S.T.A.R. labs in San Francisco.

"Oh, quit screaming. I left you alive." Said a black haired woman, while running towards a window on that floor.

"_Do you have the blastocyst map?"_ She heard the voice from her intercom say. "Of course, Mallah." She replied, not stopping her running.

"_Meet at the rendezvous. The Elephant Man will escort you back."_ Came the reply. "On my way." She said, before using her powers. She shapeshifted into a big black raven, grabbing the little metallic tube she had just stolen with her talons. She smashed through the glass without trouble and then aimed for her landing spot. One of San Francisco's typical sightseeing trams. _"The Brain will reward you well. Long live the brotherhood."_

"Long live the brotherhood." She shapeshifted back into her human form and landed effortless on top of the vehicle, grasping the tube with one of her hands. She almost caressed it, a dreamy smile finding its way on her face. "It's all for love."

"Hey, Gemini." Gemini, the thief, shot her head up, hearing that familiar voice once again. She was starting to get really annoyed. She took in the sight of the blonde girl floating in mid air in front of her, holding a shining golden rope in her hands, glaring at her with her blue eyes. "Didn't your mommy teach you stealing was wrong?"

"I've got company." Gemini said over her intercom. _"Wonder Girl?"_ Queried the voice on the device. "Who else?" She suddenly lowered herself to the roof of the tram and lengthened her leg, trying to kick Wonder Girl in the face. The blonde shielded herself by crossing her arms in front of her face, blocking the kick. "You've been a real pain, lately." Said Gemini, glaring at Wonder Girl.

"It's a talent." She said, floating back in position in front of her opponent.

"I'll show you mine." Gemini said, returning her leg into a normal shape and then shapeshifting her whole body into an animal of her choice. "You put Houngan away. You won't get me." Once fully shapeshifted she charged at her opponent.

"A bull? Is that the best you can do?" Wonder Girl simply hit her under her now taurine chin with one of her fists, unleashing her superstrength in full, the 'krak' from the hit echoing from the nearby buildings. Meanwhile, the occupants of the tram had noticed the fight on the roof and had started jumping out of it. The tram ended up crashing into a bunch of parked cars on the side of the road.

The combined strength of the punch and the crash sent Gemini flying through the air. Cassie was quick to react and threw her golden lasso at the she-bull in an odd display of an aerial rodeo, wrapping it around her torso in mid air. Once the weapon found purchase, she unleashed its power, electrocuting the thief and stunning her, while she fell to the ground. Cassie then floated to her location on the ground, determining that Gemini had lost consciousness, watching her shapeshift back into her human form. "You move, you get another five hundred volts."

"I'd ask you if you want help…" Wonder Girl blinked, hearing a familiar voice she hadn't heard in months. "But it doesn't look like you need it." She took in the sight of Robin, Ravager, Kid Devil and Cyborg moving a destroyed car out of the way.

"Oh my god! Cyborg?!" She immediately ran forward and embraced her old friend. "You're okay!" She couldn't believe he was okay. Last time she had seen him, he was still fused with Firestorm.

"One of the advantages of being part machine…" He said, returning the embrace. He suddenly remembered that they had a shared loss. A loss which she had suffered far more from than he had, he was sure of it. "…I'm sorry about Conner."

"I'm sorry too." She replied in a whisper. Bringing it up didn't upset her much anymore. She was used to it, people reminding her of what had happened.

"Vic's back, Cassie." Tim suddenly said, drawing their attention. Cassie broke the embrace. She was expecting it. "You should come back too."

"No." Was her immediate reply. She had lost count of the times he had asked her. Ravager cut him off too after hearing just a 'But…' coming from him.

"We've asked her three times to join the team. She keeps saying no. Please don't start begging, Robin." The swordswoman said, a bit of truth in her words, but she was talking just to tick Cassie off. "She's not worth it." She continued, pointing her sword at Wonder Girl, a bit too close for comfort.

"Get that out of my face, Rose." Cassie ordered, stressing the grey haired girl's name.

"What?" Rose played dumb, while putting a second blade next to the first one. "This?"

She didn't expect it. Well, not that soon. Cassie backhanded her in the face with her left hand, sending her flying on the ground with a bleeding lip. Eddie's mouth opened in shock and surprise, before hurrying to Rose's side and helping her back on her feet, while glaring at Cassie. "What'd you do that for? She wasn't gonna touch you."

"I was thinking about it…" Rose admitted while recovering. The girl sure could pack a punch. Amazon indeed.

"Stay away from me, Popeye." Cassie said, mocking the injured girl about her missing eye.

"The Brotherhood of Evil has been attacking some of the most advanced labs in the country. We've both been trying to hunt them down. Let's do it together." Tim continued, hoping to distract her and at the same time to persuade her. "We need you, Cassie. I need you."

"What did you do after Superboy died?" Cassie turned to Tim, settling her glare on him. Robin turned his head away, not liking how strong that glare was.

"I got better. I trained."

"You ran away. You went on a trip around the world with Batman." She continued, forcing him to turn around, shouting in his face. "You left me all alone. And now I'm supposed to come back to the titans because you 'need' me?!" Her glare lost some power, but she still was deadly serious. "I've spent the last year learning how to not need anyone." She finished.

"Um, Wonder Girl?" The girl turned to Eddie and raised an eyebrow in confusion at what he was doing. He was looking at the sky. "Do you summon meteors, by any chance?"

"Wha…?" The girl raised her head, following Kid Devil's stare, and her eyes widened. No, she couldn't summon meteors. But something flaming was indeed falling towards them. "Everyone! Get away!" She shouted in warning.

No Titan needed to be told twice. The spot they were standing around was vacated in the few seconds they had before the flaming object impacted the ground, sending piece of concrete, asphalt and rubble flying everywhere, followed closely by a hot shockwave.

"Nggh…" Victor shielded Tim while Eddie and Cassie, much to her reluctance, shielded Ravager from the blast. It was over in a few seconds, some debris still falling to the ground, but the big part of it was over. They slowly turned around and got back on their feet. Tim made a gesture with his hands, signalling for them to stop. "Vic?"

"On it." Cyborg was the most 'resilient' one of the group. Also, he had a lot of devices in his body. Including some that he could use to analyze whatever he found himself in front of. He walked to the crater created by the falling object. His cybernetic eye went into full throttle, going through the clearing smoke, till it fixed his gaze on the figure lying on the bottom of the crater. No. It wasn't an object. It was a person. "…It's a person."

"A person…" Robin reflected on it. A person? "Is he alive?"

"Yes. He's probably a meta." He had already managed to indentify the boy as a male. But when the smoke cleared his eyes widened. The figure was wrapped in something. His clothes had managed to weather the impact? The flames meant that he had fallen at least from the stratosphere. "…He's… He's wrapped in some kind of red cloak… Or cape."

"What?" Tim's eyes widened at that. A meta-human who could survive falling all the way through the stratosphere that wore a red cape? The people who fit that description… Cassie ran past him and Victor in a flash, and flew into the crater herself. "Cassie! Wait!"

"…" _Could… Could he…_ Cassie in that past year had held onto hope as strongly as she could. Anything, anyone that could prove to her that her boyfriend was still alive or that he could be brought back to life. She dove into the crater to the figure on the bottom of it. She could see something big and red enveloping his body. "Conner!"

She landed and turned the unconscious figure around. Just for her eyes to widen in disappointment. The figure at her feet wasn't as tall as Conner. The cloth wasn't a cape, but a ruined coat. And most of all, the figure had blonde hair. She didn't need to take in everything to understand. "…It's not him."

"Cassie? Are you alright?" Asked a concerned Victor.

"Ehm… That freak she caught got away." Eddie mentioned, but no one seemed to hear him.

"…I'm not alright." She said, before flying out of the crater, going for her rope and then disappearing into the sky.

"What was all that about?" Asked Eddie.

"Long story." Replied Tim, before diving after Cyborg into the crater. They observed the unconscious person. He seemed to be around their age. His clothes were pretty strange by their standards, and very dirty. Mostly with dried blood, they noticed. "…What do you make of him?"

"Never seen him before." Victor kneeled down and touched the person with his robotic hand, to check him up better. "He's not radioactive… But he's heavily injured. Not from the landing."

Robin sighed. His first extraterrestrial landing. "Well, I guess we have no choice but to bring him in. And then contact someone, I guess."

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Victor picked the boy up, being careful to not use any of his human parts, since the boy was still as hot as melted iron.

--

"…Mhhh…" It kinda hurt to open his eyes. Not because they were injured, but mostly because of… Soreness, he could call it, he guessed. He blinked slowly a few times till he could finally open his eyes completely. But he still couldn't tell much of what he was seeing. Just unclear spots of various colours. He had to rely on his other senses. Tact was the one working the best, at the moment. His head was upon a soft cushion, it seemed. His hands… Soft fabric. Sheets. "A bed?"

He slowly got into a sitting position, finding that, although sore, his body didn't hurt much… No, it didn't hurt at all. He guessed his personal furball had done overtime. He brought his hands to his eyes and rubbed them, trying to clear his vision. Once finished, he was able to see clearly again and observe his surroundings. He was in a room that he didn't recognize. The furniture was much better than any he had ever seen and more… Modern. It was full of light… He turned to his left side.

The whole wall was a giant window and he could see everything outside. He could only blink in confusion at what he was seeing. He got out of the bed, almost throwing the sheets off the bed in his haste as he ran to the window. He was very high, he first noticed. In some kind of a very tall tower or building. The point was what he was seeing. They were near the sea, he could tell. He could see a very big bridge made out of metal connecting two pieces of land, and he had thought that the bridge in Wave was huge. The real problem was what he saw on dry land.

The sunset was illuminating a city of the likes he had never seen before. He didn't recognize the city nor the style in which it had been built in. It was completely different from Konoha. It was a breath-taking sight, especially from his privileged observation point. But still, so different, so unfamiliar… "…I guess… I'm not in Konoha anymore."

"Ah, you woke up?" Naruto turned around, hearing a voice coming from behind him. He raised an eyebrow. The guy in front of him was strange, to say the least. And it wasn't the fact that he was wearing just a pair of jeans that was bothering him. The other things, however. Red skin, horns… Well, he had seen weirder things in his life, but still… "Damn, right, alien… Ehm, can. You. Understand. Me?"

"…" Naruto just stared for a while in confusion. What was all that about? "I can understand you just fine."

"Ah. Ehm… Sorry." The red boy rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. Robin and Victor had told him there was the probability he wouldn't understand English, but it seemed like that wasn't the case. "So, what were you doing before you fell from the sky?"

"…" Naruto stared, now even more confused. He scratched the back of his head too. "…What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't know. Thought you could tell me." The red-skinned boy replied, confusing Naruto even more. He just frowned for a while, before noticing that it was a little bit cold. His eyes travelled down to his own body. They widened and then narrowed dangerously. He raised his head and directed a sharp glare at kid devil.

"…Why am I only wearing my boxers?" He said. Kid Devil blinked and then laughed. The laugh meaning 'you noticed just now?'.

"Ahahah, sorry, sorry…" Eddie settled down, noticing that the blonde wasn't laughing. "Well, they were all cut up, ruined and full of blood, so we took them off."

"Cut… Ah." Naruto remembered. Yes, they would have to. After all, he had been fighting for his life till he passed out. Madara… He had won. A grin of satisfaction made its way to his lips. He had defeated the strongest ninja in history. That meant that the title was now his to take. "Understood… By the way, where the hell am I?" Naruto said, moving his hand to point at the scenery outside. "This isn't Konoha or anywhere near it, right?"

"Konoha? Where is that? Japan?"

"Eh? What's Japan?" A question got another question as an answer. Naruto was even more confused. He shook his head. "Konohagakure? In the fire country? Hidden village in the leaf? Got destroyed a couple months ago?"

"…Dude, you must have come from a really far, far away planet…" Kid Devil replied, crossing his arms. Naruto just stared dumbfounded. He what? "Listen, I'll call Robin and Cyborg. They will surely be better at this than me, and… They will bring you clean clothes. Alright?"

"…Alright." Naruto nodded. Kid Devil then excused himself and walked out of the room. Naruto was left alone with his thoughts, to scratch his head. He turned to the scenery again, before remembering that he was cold. He went for the bed and picked the sheets, draping them around himself. He then tried to recollect his thoughts.

_Alright. I was fighting Madara. Then? …Ah._ Naruto's mind suddenly started to recall what had happened after he had passed out. That strange place, the azure boy who talked to him… Instinctively, he looked at his right hand. His eyes widened. There was… A scar? Now, it looked like some kind of tattoo… A scar tattoo? Where had he seen that symbol before?

"You woke up already? I guess that regeneration factor was a lot better than what Victor thought." Naruto turned to the door again. The red was the first thing he noticed, briefly bringing his thoughts to the weird encounter he had before waking up in this strange place; only this time it was accompanied by black. A black haired boy around his age stood in the doorway. He was wearing a black mask that covered his eyes, a long, black cloak on his back that reached his ankles. He began to walk towards him. "Sorry, but you were injured and so we had to take a sample of your blood for analysis. We were surprised to see the speed that you healed at."

"Ah… Yes, I heal pretty fast." Naruto replied, still a bit surprised from how silent the boy moved. His steps weren't making any noise. He had rarely seen something like this, even among ninjas. He blinked when he found a hand in front of him, so entrances he was in observing the boy's feet.

"I'm Robin, leader of the Teen Titans. You almost fell on us." Naruto extended his own hand and shook the offered appendage eagerly.

"I'm Naruto… And what's with this 'falling down' thing? The red boy said something like that too." Naruto scratched the back of his head, thinking about it. "He said I fell from the sky…"

"That's exactly what happened." Naruto's face showed clear confusion. Robin took a chair from the nearby desk and sat on it. He guessed they would have to talk for a bit. "You fell from the sky, from a very high altitude too, considering the crater you dug while landing."

"I… What?!" Naruto's face and voice showed disbelief, now. Robin just kept his cool and picked something from his pocket. A series of pictures. He handed them to Naruto. The blonde took them and observed the first one. It was a picture… Of the sky? No… He noticed something red in the middle of it. He moved the picture away and put it behind all the others. In the next picture the object was bigger and clearer. He squinted his eyes, trying to make sense of what he was looking at. And then they widened again. "What the?!"

"These photos basically show your landing in sequence. A friend of mine took them." Robin kept on observing coolly Naruto as the blonde got more and more surprised picture by picture, showing his landing, the explosion, and finally his unconscious figure in the crater, with his old clothes still on. Cut, battered, bloodied… But they were his clothes. And that was him in the crater alright. "I was kind of curious as to what had happened to you, for falling through the stratosphere like that…"

"St… No, what the hell… I mean, seriously, what the hell?!" Naruto said, going through the pictures one more time, the whole set. He stared at the last one, the one where he had been turned on his back, for a few seconds before slamming them on the bed he was still sitting on. "I mean, last thing I remember I fell unconscious in a destroyed cavern on my back! Well, and then that dream…"

"What did you see in that dream?" Naruto scratched his right cheek in thought. Maybe it hadn't been a dream?

"Well, I thought that I woke up… Somewhere else. It was like I was walking into the sky at night… Then, I talked with someone enveloped in an azure light and I passed out again…" The description had been very brief, but to Robin it had been enough. "It… It wasn't a dream, huh?"

"…No. I don't think it was… Naruto." His name had a strange ring to it in Robin's mouth. He shrugged it off right after. "I suspect that after passing out you somehow travelled through space and arrived on our planet."

"Travelled through…" Naruto became even more confused. Robin had foreseen something like that. Not every alien race had the technology to travel through space. And not every alien travelled willingly.

"You're on another world that the one you were born onto." Robin took something else from his pocket while Naruto became more shocked by the second. He showed him a folded paper. Naruto took it and unfolded it in a hurry. It was a world map. "This is a map of our planet. Our world. Do you recognize your home country or city anywhere?"

"…" Naruto was starting to shiver. He couldn't find Konoha, nor the Fire Country, nor the Elemental Countries anywhere on the map he was holding in his hands. He looked at it for a few minutes, all while Robin kept on being silent. Then, when he was finally satisfied he handed the map back to the Boy Wonder while holding his face with one hand. "No… I don't."

"That was what I feared." Robin put the map with the pictures on the bed. Naruto was now holding his face with both hands. "I guess you're kind of… Surprised, right?"

"You think?" Naruto groaned. He couldn't believe something like that had happened to him. He couldn't believe he even understood it. "How the hell did this happen?"

"That we don't know. But do not worry. On our planet, we aren't unused to people coming from outer space. I believe that we can help you." Naruto's face shot up at that. First it had seemed like a big deal and now, a solution was already surfacing? "It will probably take some time, though… Until then, you're welcome to stay here. Actually, it would be preferable… Because of a couple of other things."

Naruto blinked and then turned to the window, observing the city outside, the sun had almost completely set. "And where exactly is here?"

"Planet Earth." Robin opened up the map again, showing it to Naruto. The blonde turned around again. Robin started pointing at certain points of the map. "United States of America. California. San Francisco."

"…And?" Naruto was referring to the building they were in.

"Titans Tower. T-Tower, in short. Headquarters of the Teen Titans." Robin replied. Naruto repeated the words softly. 'Teen Titans'.

"And… What are the Teen Titans?" Naruto asked. Robin got up from the chair and put it back near the desk of the room.

"A group of young crime-fighters. Let's leave it at that, for now. We will talk more at dinner." He said, before picking up the folded clothes that Naruto hadn't even noticed him place on the desk, before handing them to the blonde. "Here are some spare clothes. There's something to wear at night too. They should fit your size… Well, more or less."

"Ah… Thanks." Naruto nodded and Robin gave him a little smile.

"You can look around the tower, but please do not leave its premises. We'll have dinner around 8 PM, that's one hour from now. You know what hours are, right?" Robin said, and after getting a nod from Naruto he walked out of the room, leaving a bewildered Naruto sitting on his newest bed. Outside the room, Victor was waiting for Tim.

"So?" Victor said, since they had agreed on something.

"I don't think he's lying. At least from what I can tell." Tim replied. Victor nodded.

"My biological scanner didn't detect any change in his bodily functions that indicate lies either… But there are ways to hide them, though." Tim nodded back.

"Yes. But I don't think it's the case. Rationality apart, I get that feeling from him." The two began walking away, towards the lab. Cyborg scanned to make sure that no one was in ear-shot. It was time to talk about other things. "These aren't the Teen Titans, Tim."

"They're the best I could get right now." Tim immediately shot back. Cyborg sighed in exasperation.

"Deathstroke's daughter and Trigon Junior are the best you could get?" He said, putting a hand behind his head.

"Eddie's not really a devil." Cyborg shook his head while opening the door of the lab. He immediately walked to the videophone.

"Ravager should be locked up. She's a killer." He began to press some buttons.

"What are you doing?" Tim asked. Cyborg finished typing before answering.

"I'm calling the Doom Patrol. I'm getting Gar. And the three of us are going to get the real Titans together." He waited those few seconds needed for the call to go in. Robin knew that his friend was in for yet another surprise.

"_Hello. You've reached the Dayton Manor in Prague. Headquarters of the Doom Patrol."_ Indeed, he was surprised to see yet another familiar face, where it shouldn't have been. "Bumblebee?" Karen Beecher. Another Titan… Ex-Titan, now. _"We're unavailable right now. Please leave a message and we'll return your call as soon as possible."_ The message ended. "Karen's a member of the Doom Patrol?"

"This year's changed everyone." Tim said, before walking towards the door of the lab, Cyborg's gaze on his back. "Gar. Bart. Cassie."

"You?" He suddenly asked, but Tim answered almost immediately.

"I have my share of problems, but they're nothing I can't handle." Cyborg didn't get a chance to see if it was a lie, or maybe he just respected his friend's words… But he doubted he could have found out even if he did.

"You sure you're all right?" He asked again. Tim stopped walking and turned to him, showing Victor his profile.

"I'm fine."

--

"Damn, this place is pretty big… It took me five minutes just to find the elevator." Naruto said to no one in particular while wandering through the first floor of the tower. He had been allowed to look around, but it would have been better if he had been given some kind of map. He had gotten utterly lost. "Mhhh…"

He stopped in front of a big door. A really big one, made out of… Marble? He didn't really get it. He was lost; he might as well look inside. He put both of his hands on the door and pushed it open, and peeked inside. "There are lights…" He entered the room silently, noticing that it was kinda different from the others. It was bigger, and… "…Statues?"

Naruto had found himself in a big hall with rows of statues on both sides, and a broken one in front of him. He looked around and found that they all had something in common. Some kind of… Costume, he guessed. All strange clothes. He began to read the names at the bases of the statues. The broken one was… "… Donna Troy… Strange name." He then went and read all the other ones. Aquagirl. Hawk. Dove. He scratched the top of his head. The list went on… "Hmm… Are they like…?"

"Here you are. Thought you had left the nest." Naruto blinked and turned around. There was a girl with long grey hair and an eyepatch standing in the doorway, looking at him with a malicious smile on her face and her arms crossed. "You've found the hall of the fallen Titans, I see."

"Fallen Titans? As in…" Naruto turned his head to one of the statues for a brief second, and then back to the girl. "They all died?"

"Yes. Once or twice. Bunch of pushovers, if you ask me." Naruto got confused at the 'once or twice' thing. How could someone die twice? Then he remembered about Kakuzu and that other freak, Hidan. The girl walked to him and stopped right in front of him, and began to check him out from head to toe. "You look a pretty human-like alien, to me."

"Ehm… We called ourselves human too, you know." That made Rose 'hmmm'. Naruto then understood that he didn't know the girl. "By the way, I'm Naruto. What about you?"

"Rose. Super-alias: Ravager." Naruto whistled.

"One hell of an alias…" Then he noticed the 'super' part. And then he remembered what Robin had said about the Teen Titans. 'A group of young crime-fighters'. "So… What exactly are you guys?"

"Well, don't know how it was on your planet, but here we have a lot of super-powered people or just people with some kinda ability that puts them above other people. But there are bad guys and good guys. We are a group of good guys. We protect freedom and weak people and bring bad guys to justice and things like that." Rose replied with a smirk. Naruto nodded crossing his arms. Said like that, it made enough sense to him.

"Understood… Well, that's basically what I did myself, more or less… Most of the time." She rolled her yes.

"Go figure. Seems that every alien that comes crashing down from the skies on this planet turns out to be a superhero." Rose said, giving a less than amused sigh. "Dinner's ready, before I forget why I came to look for you."

"Ah. Alright."

--

"Found the runaway, guys."

"Hey! I didn't run away!" Naruto said, a little ticked off. Robin had clearly told him not to do something like that. This earned a chuckle from Eddie.

"It seems that you've met Ravager." Robin said. He was sitting alone on one of the shorter sides of the table. Fitting of the leader, he guessed. "Other introductions are in order, I suppose. He's Kid Devil."

"Hey. We've already met when you were pantless." The red-skinned meta joked. Naruto just sweatdropped and waved his hand weakly.

"I'm Cyborg." Victor said. Naruto nodded in acknowledgement. "Your name was… Naruto, right?"

"Yes. Thanks for… Inviting me to dinner, I guess." Naruto said, scratching the back of his head, before slowly taking a seat next to Eddie, between him and Ravager. Robin just smiled.

"Couldn't leave you on an empty stomach, could we?" The boy wonder replied. Naruto noticed that he hadn't taken off his costume even if they were having dinner. He shrugged it off as non important. "So, want to tell us about yourself a bit, Naruto?"

"Why not. I was already talking a bit with… Ravager, right." Naruto didn't have that much memory for faces and names if he didn't put a nickname along it. Ravager suited his needs, he guessed. "Well, she told me that you're some kind of… Heroes." Suddenly his trademark grin made its way back to his face. "I'm kinda like that too. Just won one hell of a battle before I passed out and ended up here."

"So… You got any… Peculiar powers?" Robin asked, while Victor was recording everything in his mainframe. Naruto nodded.

"Yep. I'm a ninja." He then pointed at his chest with his right thumb. "Strongest one ever existed in my world, they say."

"A ninja? Like, an assassin?" Eddie said, clearly unimpressed. Naruto blinked. Didn't he say… Wait, they knew what a ninja was? "Like, hide in the shadows, strike from the back?"

"That's what ninja do too, yes… You have ninjas here?"

"More or less." Robin replied. He seemed to remember that Batman had told him about fighting a group of people that acted like ninjas.

"From how he talked about it, they don't sound like anything special." Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. He guessed they had a different kind of ninja on that world. "I mean, ninjas on my planets are really cool."

"Like? What can you do?" Eddie asked.

"Well, for example…" Naruto put his hands in a handseal, trying to gather enough chakra to use his trademark technique. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot up from his back all the way up to his head. He let out a small scream of pain. "What the?!"

"Hey! You alright?!" Eddie said, putting a hand on his shoulder while Naruto held his head.

"What…? Oh, hell." Naruto palmed his forehead. He remembered that kind of pain. It had happened once. When he first started to learn the Rasengan when he was twelve. Overused chakra pathways. "It's nothing… It's just that it will be a while before I can use my full power, it seems. Used it too much too long."

Victor kept on recording everything and he had been analyzing Naruto's body constantly too. When he had made that strange sign with his hands a surge of energy had build up into his body just to disperse almost immediately. He had equipped his body with every scanning device he had for the occasion.

"Hmmm…" Naruto scratched his hair, and then did a handseal one more time. He began to build his chakra little by little, to measure and test exactly which amount started to hurt. He winced after a few seconds. "Well, I can do this, for a starter." Suddenly, there was a 'poof' and his body became enveloped in smoke. Eddie coughed since he got enveloped in it directly. Robin and the others just kept on observing. "What do you think?"

"…Eh?" Eddie was the one to voice everyone's confusion at hearing his own voice coming from someone else. Then the smoke cleared and Eddie's eyes went wide, and Rose raised an eyebrow in amusement. Naruto had just transformed into a perfect copy of Eddie, voice included from what they had heard. "Shapeshifting? Wow."

"Nah. It's the transformation technique." Naruto dispelled it, making Eddie cough again because of the smoke. Naruto laughed nervously. "Sorry about that… Well, ninjas in my world basically are masters of these kinds of techniques. There are different kinds of techniques. Techniques with no attack value like this one and attack techniques that make you able to carve holes into rocks."

"… Sounds interesting." Robin said while glancing at Victor. The Cyborg shook his head slowly, so that it could go unnoticed. _Not even Cyborg could see through it, huh? Not unusual, but… Impressive._

"Well, I hope I heal soon! So I can show you the rest!" Naruto said, grinning widely at Robin just as the twins came in with the dinner. Further talking would have to wait, he guessed. Whatever the food was, it smelled good.

--

"He didn't seem that suspicious to me. I have a feeling he's honest, but… We have a precedent, right?"

"_Kara."_ The voice on the other end of the intercom replied. Robin knew better than to take care of something like an unknown alien suddenly ending up on earth on his own. It was better to call the 'grown ups'. In his case, his own grown up. His mentor. _"You did the right thing in telling me before the others. Even if it was in this evening's news."_

"You're going to tell anyone else?" Tim said.

"_Just him. Can't keep anything that obvious from him, after all. You can probably expect a visit tomorrow."_

"Understood. Then, I'll go and download Victor's recording and send it to you as soon as possible. They need to be defragmented." Tim continued, getting up from his seat. "Robin here, over." The figure in the videophone simply nodded, very slightly, and the communication closed. Then Tim started to walk down to the lower level of the tower, its basement. He stopped once he arrived in front of a bare wall. He removed one of his gloves and pressed his palm on the stone.

"Access requested." He said. The point where he had pressed his palm suddenly flashed red, and an electronic voice echoed in the air. _"Access granted. Welcome back, Robin."_ The female voice said and a door shaped hole opened right in front of him, revealing a set of steps leading down, excavated in the rock. "Computer report." He said while descending the stairs.

Robin had told him that he had his share of problems that he managed to get through. The problem was exactly how, though. His way of dealing with the events of one year before, mainly, the death of his best friend, had led him to two things. First, to build his own version of the batcave under Titans Tower. Metal ledges, hi-tech computers and machineries all around. Artificial lights, that scared bats into flying around when he turned them on. _"Attempt ninety-six complete. Protein link failure at forty-one hours three minutes thirteen seconds. Full genetic breakdown at forty-two hours zero minutes two seconds. Attempt ninety-six unsuccessful."_

"Suggestions?" He asked while walking further down the cave, glancing at a vat full of green liquid for a few seconds, which held in it a set of clothes. Much like Batman did in his own cave. This set of clothes was just a pair of jeans and a black T-Shirt with a red symbol. A polygon with an 'S' in the middle.

"_Stabilizer needed. Specifics unknown."_ The computer replied. Robin walked past the clothes and to the main computer, in front of which was the vat that the main purpose of the place took place.

"Initiate next attempt." He said. The vat got filled with bubbling green liquid and a red light flashed from within. Two faces were displayed on two screens of the computer behind it, with two almost identical sentences. One said: 50% Genetic Material, Human DNA, Source Lex Luthor; the second one said: 50% Genetic Material, Kryptonian DNA, Source Superman.

"_Superboy cloning attempt ninety-seven initiated."_

--

After dinner, Naruto had retired to his room. He had a lot on his mind. Also, he needed to verify a couple of things. Mainly, about his body. It seemed that the battle with Madara had taken quite the toll on his body. First of all, his chakra pathways were highly damaged. They could not sustain much chakra nor particular twists of it. So that meant, no Rasengan and max fifty clones. It also meant no sage mode, since he had to balance natural chakra with his own chakra and, at the moment, he didn't have enough to do so.

Secondly, he didn't know why, but he had been captivated by the sight of the city at night he had landed in. San Francisco, he remembered. He had always liked staring at Konoha from the top of his father's head. Maybe he had a liking for sights from high places? Whatever the case, the sight of that city at night was breathtaking. He was just standing there, admiring the lights and everything else from above. The reflection in the sea water was particularly hypnotic. "…Damn, how long have I been standing here like this?"

"A long time. I've been watching you for like; ten minutes and you've been doing nothing but standing there and staring outside." Naruto got startled, so focused was he on the scenery outside, when someone talked from behind his back. He turned around in a flash and sighed in relief. It was just Rose. "Scared you?"

"Geez, you shouldn't sneak up on someone who's completely focused on something…" He said, scratching the back of his head. And he barely caught something that she had lobbed at him. It jumped around in his hands and he barely managed to catch it before it ended on the ground. He stared at it still crouched over. It was a bottle. "A beer?"

"Always better to drink in groups of two or more people." She said, smiling maliciously and sitting on his bed. Naruto stared at the alcoholic beverage for a little bit. He didn't see much sense in drinking, mostly because the furball prevented him from getting jolly, let alone drunk, but he guessed it would be rude to refuse.

"Ehm, how do I open it?" Naruto suddenly noticed that he had no way of opening the bottle without hurting himself or crushing it in the process. Rose just held out her left hand and gestured with her index finger for him to come closer. The blonde blinked but obeyed, and paled when the girl drew out a sword. "H-Hey! What are you…"

"Just hold still." Without giving him time to retort, the girl swung her sword horizontally in a flash and then sheathed the sword in a scabbard on her back, before starting to un-strap it. Naruto had let out a small scream of terror, but after that he got confused. What had she done? She leaned towards the bottle and blew on it softly, and the cap, along with the tip of the bottle, fell to the ground. To say that the shinobi was impressed was an understatement. He just stared at the girl and at the now opened beer with wide eyes. "Going to drink it or wait for it to become vinegar?"

"Ah! Y-Yes, sorry." Naruto immediately felt compelled to take a large sip of the beverage, if for nothing else but to honour her display of skill. He drank a quarter of the bottle all in one breath, letting out a 'Paaah' right after. "Bitter… But, wow." He returned his gaze on Rose, who was drinking a bit herself, her bottle already opened before she came in the room. "That was some swordsmanship."

"And you should see me when I'm serious." Rose said, smirking. Naruto nodded and sat beside her on the bed.

"So… You're a superhero." That earned a snort from the grey-haired girl.

"I try. But since I'm the daughter of one of the worst criminals and one of the best assassins in the world and I did my share of the work, it's going to be kinda difficult." She said, taking another sip from her beverage right after. Naruto blinked at that.

"Geez… I can understand how that can… Impair your heroic career." The blonde scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit uncomfortable all of a sudden. Rose in the meanwhile, though, was… Surprised.

"So? No 'Help, murderer'?" It was Naruto's time to snort. He gave her an amused look.

"Believe me, Ravager. Among all the murderers I've met in my life, you're the less dangerous looking… And probably less dangerous altogether. And it's not like taking lives makes you a bad person. There are always circumstances." Naruto took another sip of his beer while Rose stared at him still a bit surprised, but a smile of amusement and interest made its way on her lips. She leaned back on the bed and threw her legs on his lap, while holding her head with one hand.

"Well, let's see… Make an example." Naruto blushed a little from the sudden gesture and closeness. He scratched the bridge of his nose with his right index finger.

"Hmmm… There was this guy… The older brother of my best friend. He killed his entire clan, except for himself and his brother, every single living relative of theirs." Even Rose was surprised by that. She hadn't done something as… Massive as that. "All that because his clan was going to stage a coup that would basically throw the village they lived in into chaos, so corrupted it had become. He loved peace and his village… And for the sake of peace and his younger brother, he became a murderer."

"…" Rose listened to every word, nodding slightly. Quite the story. That took some guts and… Some nobility. "Well, that's someone with a noble soul if I've ever heard about one… I guess."

"You guess." Naruto said, turning to her with a confused face. She just shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm not an expert about nobility. You should ask Robin… Well, maybe not." She finished her beer in one last swipe, before letting it fall to the ground.

"Hey, it will get dirty!" He leaned forward and pulled the empty bottle off the floor, settling it in a vertical position… Before Rose used her legs to make him lean back on his bed, a bit harder than necessary. "Ow."

"Aren't you going to tell me to get my legs off you?" Naruto rolled his eyes.

"They're not that heavy and as long as you don't kick me in the chest anymore, I don't see the problem." Naruto said, before turning his head to Rose. "No, seriously. No more hits in the chest. I've got enough beating from a girl for no reasons to last me three lifetimes."

"So, I've got to have a reason, hm? Well…" She suddenly removed her legs from him and crawled above him on all fours. "It was to get you in the right position."

Naruto blushed but rolled his eyes nonetheless. "Well, there are two reasons for this too. Either you're a really bad drunk since you've drunk just one beer, or you're teasing the hell out of me because you like seeing me all flustered and mushy."

"Not flustered enough, though. I can't hear you stuttering." Naruto chuckled, focusing his thoughts on Tsunade's figure.

"Girl, you've three cups too early to try and get me flustered." Rose frowned at that. Naruto then remembered that her swords were still near them. "I mean… I'm pretty much used to being around pretty girls. That's all."

"Hmmm…" Rose stared at his face for a bit before somersaulting over him and out of the bed using her hands. Naruto sighed in relief and picked up her swords, handing them back to her. "You're no fun like this… But it has been a nice chat."

"Same here." Naruto got up from the bed and smiled at her. Nice girl. Funny to talk to. Rose waved at him while getting out of his room, closing the door behind her. Naruto found himself still smiling, crossing his arms behind his head and falling back on his bed. "Hmm… Well, they all seem pretty nice people. Apart the half robot one. He was awfully silent. What's eating him?"

--

A few hours passed into the night. And while most people were enjoying a much needed rest, someone was still awake at 3:35 AM.

"_Cloning attempt ninety-seven unsuccessful."_ The computer said. Tim suddenly felt very tired from all the extra work he had been doing.

"Again, computer. Try again."

"_Cloning attempt ninety-eight initiated."_ Tim slowly made his way out of the cave and back to his room, removing his cape and sitting on his bed, holding his head with one hand. Ever since he had built his own batcave, his every free moment had been dedicated to that single task. Trying to clone his deceased best friend. He seemed okay to the others but the fact was that he missed him so much that…

"Where have you been?" So tired he was that he had failed to notice the lump on his bed under his sheets that suddenly came alive and grabbed him by the neck, throwing him on his back on his bed, before throwing itself over him. "I've been waiting all night."

The lump revealed itself to be Rose. Robin was shocked for a few seconds when he realized she was butt naked. That allowed her to lower her head for a kiss. That got some reason back into him. He pushed her away but she grabbed his hands and pushed back. "Rose?! What are you doing?!"

"Having fun." She replied, like what she was doing was the most normal thing in the world.

"What are you doing in my bed?" He asked, getting calmer by the minute.

"Trying to take off your utility belt." He groaned.

"Have you been drinking, again?" He said. She smiled a little maliciously.

"Maybe." Robin suddenly felt like palming his face. But that would give that octopus with silver hair more ways to immobilize him.

--

"Hmm…" Naruto turned around in his sleep. He felt strange… Like someone was observing him while he was sleeping. But that couldn't be, could it? Then, he heard a small noise. He shot up in his bed and turned to his door. It was slightly opened. But he was pretty sure it was closed before he fell asleep. _What the? Maybe it's that creepy robot guy?_

Naruto got up from his bed and silently went for his door, opening it all the way. He turned to right and left. The corridor was dark and no one was in sight. He closed his eyes and focused… He could hear very light footsteps coming from his right. He silently turned in that direction and began to walk down the corridor.

In a few minutes, something else began to make noise. Electrical noises and a couple of voices were heard. One of those was electrical too. "Access terrorist groups. Subfile: brotherhood of evil."

"_Password requested."_ The electrical voice replied. Naruto turned the corner and saw a clearly female silhouette, with long blonde hair, manipulating something on a console.

"Password… Jericho." She said after thinking about it for a few seconds.

"_Password out of date.__ Security activated."_ The girl let out a whispered curse as some kind of alarm went off, a noise filling the air along with the voice now shouting 'Warning. Intruder in war room.'. Naruto thought that it was time to let himself be known.

"What the hell are you doing?" He said, stepping out from behind the corner, surprising the girl, who turned around in a flash. "Who are you?"

Cassie's attention was on something else, though. Mainly, what Naruto was wearing. They were pyjamas, but… She had seen those pyjamas before. And not on the boy currently in front of her. She kept on staring at him, much to Naruto's confusion. "Take it off."

"Wha…?!" Before Naruto could get a chance to understand what had been asked of him the girl lunged at him, a fist pulled back, ready to strike.

"Take it off!"

_Continue…_

_In the next chapter…_

During an eventful evening and night, Naruto gets to know more about the world he lives in and the Teen Titans… Including how they're not a real team, at the moment. Stay tuned.


	2. Important Notice

**Important Notice**

To everyone who like this story and have it on alerts, I have news for you.

This story is currently undergoing a process of rewrite. The first chapter is almost done, and will be posted very soon.

A warning, though. While the basis will still be the same, alias a NarutoXDC X-Over, the start and the premise will be different from this story.

I will post another notice to warn you of the publication but like always, the only way to be sure not to miss it is to have me on Author Alert.

Sincerely yours

Meinos Kaen


	3. Final Notice

**Important Notice**

I've posted the rewrite. The name's Spectrum. Some die-hard DC fans may have already a suspect as to the differences between the two versions, hn?

Just check my profile and it will be there.

Meinos Kaen


End file.
